The Natural Enemy of Living Things

Ouyang Xing frowned as he studied the documents. The others looked much the same, all at a complete loss.

The page on his desk detailed the measures the chemical defense unit had taken to treat the patients: the best broad-spectrum antibiotics, surgery performed by the most skilled doctors, and the most attentive nursing and vital-sign monitoring. It could be said they had reached the limits of modern medicine.

But none of it had worked.

The reason was that humans had never suffered such a severe Aspergillus flavus infection—or it should have been impossible in the first place. Faced with this unknown enemy, humanity was helpless.

"Our immediate priority should be to study the mechanism behind this fungal infection, find out how it infects people, and then develop targeted drug treatments."

A senior thought it over and was the first to make a suggestion.

The others caught on. "Right! There aren't many patients anyway, so we can develop some targeted drugs first, regardless of cost..."

Academician Qi gave them an approving glance and nodded. "You're quick on the uptake. The Institute of Chemical Defense had the same idea, but that's where the difficulty lies. Its pathological mechanism is bizarre, too..."

Academician Qi explained it in simple terms, and even Xu Chen understood. The fungus seemed able to ignore the human body's defenses, including both the innate and acquired immune systems. Most baffling of all, it had some unique mechanism that allowed it to breach the skin's defenses.

In a sense, skin was a physical barrier, immune to the magical attacks of microorganisms. Only when it was injured could pathogenic microbes take advantage of an opening. But now, faced with this fungus, the human body was as defenseless as if its skin had been stripped away.

Could anyone imagine being infected simply by standing in the open air? Yet this Aspergillus flavus could do just that, because humans had no defenses against it whatsoever.

"That doesn't make sense. Why would any microorganism be able to breach the skin's defenses?" A senior woman's face scrunched up in disbelief.

"You're puzzled, and so am I. I've brought my patient here. He has developed severe sepsis from the fungal infection and is now entirely dependent on machines to stay alive. You can see the progression of the disease for yourselves."

Xu Chen stared at Academician Qi in disbelief.

He had brought a bomb here. No, a biological weapon. A bomb would at least only explode once. If this thing leaked out like the T-virus, this place would probably become a dead city.

Academician Qi noticed Xu Chen's gaze and looked over. "Hm? Young man, do you have a question?"

Xu Chen studied Academician Qi and asked cautiously, "Is that patient safe?"

Academician Qi noticed that everyone seemed interested in the question and was looking at him, and he understood. "You can rest assured about that. You'll all work outside the isolation chamber, and a specialist will carry out any instructions using the robotic arms. You won't have any opportunity to come into contact with the patient."

Only then did Xu Chen breathe a sigh of relief, though he was also a little curious about what an isolation chamber with robotic arms looked like.

"All right, give me the samples. I'll take you upstairs to have a look. He doesn't have much time, so we all need to make every second count."

Academician Qi collected all the samples and counted them several times.

The material was still viable, and no matter how safely it was packaged, that safety was only relative. He had to make sure there were no leaks.

The group then followed Academician Qi into the heavily guarded elevator next door and went upstairs.

According to the floor directory inside the elevator, the entire building consisted of laboratories.

When they arrived, they discovered it was a huge laboratory, with a single transparent isolation chamber in the middle. Numerous doctors and researchers in white coats bustled back and forth.

Academician Qi pointed to the isolation chamber in the center. A movable console stood beside it, operated by two doctors. "You can go have a look now. Those two are from the company that made the chamber, and they're very skilled at operating it. Tell them if you need anything."

Everyone nodded and hurried over. Even though they had seen the documents, only by looking for themselves could they know just how bad the fungal infection could get.

One of the seniors who had come to look—the woman who had felt like throwing up at the photographs—saw the patient lying in the isolation chamber from a distance. Her expression changed, and she stopped, unwilling to go any closer.

Xu Chen could understand. Even from a distance, the patient's exposed arms looked as if they were covered in a yellow film. With the photographs in mind, it was easy to imagine how grotesque they would look up close.

After one of the seniors stayed behind to comfort her, the rest gathered around the chamber, curious.

The patient was a thin, gaunt man who appeared to be unconscious. His chest rose and fell slowly, and he seemed to be struggling terribly to breathe. He was already on oxygen, but he was clearly in considerable distress.

Large areas of his body were covered in a fuzzy fungal mat, as if he had gone moldy. A few areas were ulcerated and oozing yellow tissue fluid. A robotic arm was treating them with medical cotton swabs and cotton, but it still could not keep up. Quite a lot of fluid had seeped onto the bed.

"The skin covered by mold seems to have died. A light touch with the cotton is enough to pull a piece off. Have they examined his skin?"

"Yes. It's just as you said: the mold kills the skin. But it's not just the skin. The same thing happens to other tissues."

A doctor nearby offered an explanation when he heard the question.

Xu Chen looked over. The doctor seemed to have come over specifically to answer their questions.

"Then have you tried conducting pathology experiments on other animals?"

"Yes. Not just other animals, either. We've tried plants too."

"?"

Everyone looked at the doctor, their faces full of questions. What did plants have to do with it?

Ouyang Xing gave it a moment's thought and realized the implication. Suddenly shocked, he asked, "Could it be that this fungus can infect the entire animal kingdom?"

The animal kingdom was a biological classification, which included the animal kingdom (Animalia), the plant kingdom (Plantae), the fungal kingdom (Fungi), the protist kingdom (Protista), and the bacterial kingdom (Bacteria).

The doctor nodded gravely.

"Now we're in trouble," Ouyang Xing said, rubbing his chin.

At first, Xu Chen did not understand, but then he too realized how Ouyang Xing had reached that conclusion.

If the entire animal kingdom could be infected by the fungus, then someone would certainly have tried to see whether it could infect the plant kingdom.

The animal kingdom experiments might even have covered more types, such as marine life or arthropods. They must have tested every phylum, class, and even order of the animal kingdom they could before considering the plant kingdom.

That was why Ouyang Xing had asked in shock whether the fungus could infect the entire animal kingdom.

"According to the experiments, apart from the fungal and bacterial kingdoms, basically all living things can be infected by this fungus. Mammals are the most susceptible. That news just came from the central authorities."

"!!!"

"Also, look at the inner wall of the isolation chamber."

Xu Chen looked at the inner wall. At first he saw nothing, but then he spotted some extremely fine threads. The robotic arm moved again, and Xu Chen noticed yellow growth on its joints as well.

"Their fungal mat seems to be spreading. If acids, alkalis, and high temperatures weren't effective against it, so it wasn't invincible, I'd suspect it was some kind of alien invasion."

"It's practically the natural enemy of all living things, here to destroy the earth."